This episode's title holds true, whether you're a normal crazy person or someone who has taken responsibility for your own state of mind.

What's going on within creates what you achieve and experience - it has nothing to do with anyone else but you.

If you're a normal crazy person, your everyday life is the result of a mass hallucination, a mass hypnosis driven by programmed, patterned, repetitive thought, which leads to a programmed, patterned, repetitive life - no wonder, when using our minds this way, we feel stuck, fearful of change and stressed (and much more besides).

Normal, shared, hallucinogenic thought creates an assumed reality that enough people share to provide us with the "comfort" that it must be OK. It's not.

Being the creator of your own life, as you are, you must ask yourself this key question:

"What kind of life do I really want to create for myself?"

This is actually a simpler question to answer than you might think. And this is one of the key questions that we address in this episode. I hope this discussion will enable you settle on the answer that you know (normal people don't know that they know!) to be the best answer for you and yours.

But, then, this episode goes on to explain how to create the life that's best for you and what results you can expect.

Worth 35mins of your time!

I really don't like the title of this week's episode because we're talking about so much more...

First of all, we bust a few productivity-boosting myths: like you should do the (apparently) important things first or you should do the task you'd prefer not to have to do at all before you do anything else; like you should have a "To Do List" or have a plan or, God help us, an Action Plan; like multi-tasking, otherwise known to cognitive psychology as trying to half do a load of things badly simultaneously. Ah... Myths!

More importantly, this episode provides you with a step-by-step Blueprint that will boost an awful lot more than your productivity.

Because, essentially, we're talking about focus and flow in this episode. And we're talking about the importance of focus and flow in everything - focus is not just a work thing, obviously.

Allied to that Blueprint is an exploration of "compartmentalisation" - actually another aspect or attribute of Flow.

In short, this episode is longer than usual (bit of a paradox there!) because there's so much in it - so much that will change your life.

Another misleading episode title - because there's nothing that you need to boost!

Self-esteem is about how you think about what you think about who you think you are. How many steps removed are we from reality?

It's only our "Conceptual Self" that thinks it needs bettering, buttering-up, bolstering. The various tips that you'll find online about boosting your self-esteem are thoughts about thoughts.

And, as we know from previous episodes, we are at our best when we are not thinking. We are when we are not thinking.

So, do we need to stop thinking? And how much effort will that take? Is it even possible?

No, you don't need to try to stop something, you need to start being something... real. You simply need to come to your senses to actually feel who you really are - that way you'll stop thinking about it, stop thinking about yourself.

And, when we stop thinking, we start living. And that's a game-changer.

Actually, the title of this week's episode is a little misleading - after all, why do you need to deal with something that, in reality, isn't there.

Yes, whilst everyday life is full or pressure and challenge, stress is imaginary, in the mind of the beholder.

That doesn't make stress any less life-destroying, literally. Everyday stress kills, like death by a thousand cuts. Everyday stress damages the cardiovascular, digestive and immune systems - but not, not ever, beyond repair.

You can choose to rid your life of stress today - you don't even have to image something different from your imaginary stress, you just have to come to your senses.

In this episode, we explore how two-step cognitive appraisal triggers stress - in other words, what's happening to you doesn't trigger your stress, what you think about what you think is happening and how you think you might be able to handle it... all that thinking is what triggers your stress and, in the process, makes what might be a small, everyday challenge, feel like a life-threatening situation.

All this is automated but that does not mean that there's nothing that you can do about it.

On the contrary - the small steps that you must take to rid your life of stress are as easy and as natural as breathing in and out.

And ridding your life of stress is only the beginning because, once free of that thought-fuelled downward spiral, you're free to start living the kind of life you're meant to be living, one that's filled with perfect moments.

Regardless of your individual circumstances, there is one thing that I know you're looking for (because everyone's looking for it)... peace of mind.

Now, before we go any further, I do know some people who are not looking for peace of mind because they've already found it - they're owners of The Psychology of Success Online Program. You'll find details of that in the link in your podcast player!

Anyway, back to this episode. When you experience peace of mind, even for a moment, everything changes because your perspective is altered and, once experienced it cannot be unexperienced.

With peace of mind comes presence and presence is not just attractive, it's creative.

In this episode we explore how we effortlessly encounter opportunity when we're present - opportunity that your thinking mind could never imagine happening. I've picked a perfect client story to illustrate the point.

With presence comes an understanding that, in this moment (which is the only place and time that you can do what you need to do to get to where's best for you), all is well, you don't have a care in the world.

And that's liberating.

And, when you're liberated, anything's possible or, actually, the best's just going to happen.

We're talking about real success and happiness in this episode - we're talking about the real you and how different that is from the person that you think you are, the personality that fits you like a glove.

We're talking about how to balance work and life, how to rid your life of stress, effort and worry. We're talking about living your life on your terms, your way.

But we're not just talking about it - this episode provides both the instructions on how to do the right things in the right way at the right time (and no more!) and how that actually works in the reality of the cut and thrust of everyday life.

And we're exploring the actual difference that makes: to the structure of your brain and to your experience of everyday life - how others have changed their lives by changing their minds.

And how you can do that too. Today.

What does happiness mean to you? What does success look like? How would it feel to be living your life, your way, to the full?

Do you need to answer these questions? You certainly shouldn't exercise your mind in thinking about them!

In this episode, we explore how we need not define happiness and success, how we need to know what it's like to feel it and how, when we do feel it, even if only for a glancing moment, do we sustain it.

Yes, living your "best life" - an awful expression but you know what I mean - is but a breath away or, perhaps, not even that!

As is often the case, I sat down to record one episode and an entirely different episode emerged... it's called being in flow!

So, whilst the above title is spot on, I explore a variety of ways in which we normally try to succeed or excel, which simply do not work - or worse set us up for disappointment or failure - as an introduction to the last ten minutes of this episode when... you get exactly what it says on the tin!

What does that mean? You're getting simple instruction in proper meditation. You're getting a refresher in the importance of proper meditation and we're more deeply exploring what passes for living when you've not embarked on a program of proper meditation.

This episode goes around the houses just a bit before getting to the point but, as with life itself, the journey is what's important. Listen carefully, you never know when you'll have an "Aha Moment".